England's Snowiest Place

In search of a white Christmas? In England, your best chance is the spectacular frozen uplands of the North Pennines, reports Mark Sutcliffe.

- Mark Sutcliffe

The first flurries of winter snow always trigger a frisson of excitement in England. Optimistic schoolchildren look forward to a ‘snow day’ off school as the severe weather warnings turn from yellow to amber.

Yet the reality is that ‘serious snow events’ are becoming rather rare in England – parts of southern England may get through the winter without suffering anything more dramatic than a harsh frost. However, in England’s largest expanse of upland, significant snowfall is still pretty much guaranteed every winter. Welcome to Upper Teesdale: the snowiest place in England.

ICY HEIGHTS

As we climb out of the Eden Valley up the steep escarpment of the Pennine spine, signs warn us that the road ahead may be blocked by snow and ice. Just 48 hours earlier, blizzard conditions had shut the B6276 between Brough and Middleton in Teesdale – the heart of this close-knit farming community.

Teesdale sits on the border between three distinct landscapes. To the west sit the snow-capped mountains of the Lake District, sharper and showier, but in fact, few rise as high as the highest points on the North Pennine plateau.

Due south lie the Yorkshire Dales, where the voluptuous velveteen hills of the Howgills mark the northern boundary of the Dales National Park. And to the north are the vast swathes of moorland and forest of the Great North, a wild hinterland behind the industrial cities that line the northeast coast.

Up on the moors above the Tees Valley, recent snowfall still lies thick in the deeper gullies, and carpets the sharply etched edges beneath the highest slopes of the plateau. On the tops, all is quiet. The gales that blew in the blizzard from the northeast have subsided to the merest zephyr and the thick blanket of snow sparkles brilliant white under a tungsten-blue sky.

SIBERIA, UK